Reading Questions for Kant & Wollstonecraft
Use specific examples from the text to answer one question about each text (about 75-150 words each). Bring your responses (in hard copy) to class.
Wollstonecraft, “Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
- To what does Wollstonecraft attribute women’s current inferior position in society? How does she think it can be changed?
- Wollstonecraft critiques what others have written about women and their education. What does she mean when she says that they “render women pleasing at the expense of every solid virtue” (134)?
- Why does Wollstonecraft compare women to soldiers? In what way, according to her, are the two groups similar? How does this example relate to her larger argument?
Kant, “What is Enlightenment?”
- What does Kant mean when he writes that we do not live in an “enlightened age” but in an “age of enlightenment”? What is the difference between the two?
- How does Kant differentiate between public and private uses of reason?
- Kant argues that “if only freedom is granted enlightenment is almost sure to follow.” What does he mean here by freedom? Who grants it? It is absolute?
- What limits does Kant put on the free exercise of reason? Why?